State of the College Address 2003

Carol T. Christ, Tenth President of Smith College
Ivy Day, May 17, 2003

Good morning. This, my first Ivy Day, is a very moving occasion. On this day, through the rituals we enact, we join the college’s past and future. Anticipating their graduation tomorrow, the seniors join in the alumnae parade. When they plant the ivy at the end of this convocation, they perform an act that at once symbolizes the beginning of their own lives as graduates and the ties that will continue to bind them, as alumnae, to the college.

Ivy Day has a long history at Smith. It was first celebrated in 1884, when the graduating class decided to create a visible and lasting monument to their presence here. That first celebration took place on the porch of College Hall and consisted of an Ivy poem, an Ivy oration, an Ivy song, and the planting of the Ivy, one plant for each graduate. I suppose my speech could be reckoned a descendent of the Ivy oration, but I’m disappointed that we no longer have an ivy poem or an ivy song. The first illumination took place in 1888; the first procession in 1894. By 1900, the ceremony was moved to Seelye Hall, perhaps because College Hall had received its quota of ivy. Alumnae apparently began to attend the festivities early on.

In 1906, a newspaper account states, “The alumnae began to provide spontaneous entertainment for the crowd. As they waited for the Ivy procession to begin, they roamed around the campus and sang songs.”

I didn’t encounter any alumnae breaking spontaneously into song on my way over here, but the day has just begun.

The Alumnae Parade began in 1908, and by 1912, the college had hired a band. In 1946, it was decided that each member of the class would no longer plant a sprig of ivy, but that one plant would stand for all, perhaps because the available buildings had all been covered. If only ivy grew on glass, the Campus Center could offer some interesting opportunities.

My speech today, in which I describe the current state of the college, also has some interesting history behind it. This convocation is also called The Last Chapel, referring back to a time when chapel was required, and the President used the occasion of the last chapel to tell students and alumnae about the highlights of the year. Although the custom of chapel survives only in the vestige of the name of the event, the content of my talk today bears considerable resemblance to the content of those last chapels, decades ago, when President Neilson, or President Mendenhall, or President Dunn talked about the achievements of the year.

This has been a remarkable year. Its most striking events have been the opening of the Brown Fine Arts Center, the reopening of the Lyman Plant House and Botanic Garden, and the construction of the Campus Center. These three buildings have something important in common; they join the college and the community in which it sits, reflecting Smith’s founding vision that the college be part of the practical life of the town. The Brown Fine Arts Center represents this connection in its architectural design. A long walk extends along the side of the building on Elm Street leading to the doors of the atrium, a magnificent space through which you can walk into the main quadrangle of the campus. When the Mayor of Northampton and I cut the ribbon at the museum opening just two weeks ago, a line of people of all ages and occupations, extending more than a block, poured into the museum, eager to see its new galleries and its magnificent collection.

The classroom and studio wing of the building has been open since the fall, and students and faculty have been enjoying the wonderful new studios, classrooms, and library. But the reopening of the museum has had an exhilarating effect on the entire community. At the faculty preview, I kept meeting colleagues with radiant faces, happy to see the paintings that had become old friends in their beautiful new home.

The reopening of the Lyman Plant House, just last weekend, with its expanded facilities, has brought a similar joy to the community. It was President Seelye who, in the early years of the college, determined that it should have both an art museum and a botanic garden. We can be grateful for his vision and for the generosity of generations of alumnae and friends for these exceptional resources for the academic program, now more beautiful and more useful for study and teaching than ever.

When the Campus Center opens in the fall, it will provide a new kind of space, a central meeting place to knit the community together, a crossroads for us all.

Several other construction projects are in various stages. We have just completed a renovation of Lilly Hall, and the School for Social Work has moved back into its beautifully refurbished quarters. Work has begun on the renovation of the Mendenhall performing arts complex and on the new fitness center, funded with a generous gift from the Olin Foundation, to be built over the connector between Scott and Ainsworth Gymnasiums. Finally, we have selected an architect, Bohlin, Cywinski, and Jackson, for the new engineering building, which will be constructed on Green Street.

I have been talking so far about our buildings; I would like now to talk about what goes on inside them. Our new academic initiatives are all thriving. We will graduate our first class of engineers next year, and the program continues to attract enrollments larger than we anticipated. Engineering, together with the Sally Ride Science Club, began the year by announcing Toychallenge, a national toy design competition, sponsored by Hasbro. The winner will be announced at a national showcase here at Smith next month. This winter, a team of our engineering students was chosen to conduct anti-gravity experiments at NASA in Houston.

The Poetry Center has continued with another extraordinary set of readings this year, including ones by Adrienne Rich, Lucille Clifton, Richard Wilbur, James Tate, and Derek Walcott. The Kahn Institute, which supports collaborative research projects in the liberal arts involving faculty and students, completed its fifth successful year. The Women and Financial Independence program, designed to provide women with the financial knowledge to manage their professional and personal lives, is going strong; Professor Randall Bartlett has just given his very successful workshop for seniors, From Backpack to Briefcase. Finally, the Praxis Program, which guarantees each student a paid internship, has over 350 students about to begin internships this summer. The organizations for which they will work range from the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, the Emergency Room at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, a WorldTeach program in Costa Rica, the ABC News Medical Unit, a Smithsonian excavation of prehistoric sites in Laborador, Harvard’s National Human Genome Center, and the Modesto, California, Townsend Opera Players.

The success of all these initiatives owes so much to the generosity of alumnae. Our comprehensive campaign has just reached a total of $320 million, including gifts that have funded the Brown Fine Arts Center and the Lyman Plant House. Our endowment for Praxis has reached $10.3 million, and we are in the middle of trying to reach a Kresge Challenge to fund the building of the Campus Center.

These gifts are particularly important at a time of economic challenge like the present. Because of the volatility of the stock market, the value of the college’s endowment has declined. Because of difficulties in the economy, the financial need of our students has significantly increased. We are therefore particularly grateful for the scholarship gifts given this year.

We have received more than thirty new endowed scholarships, including one named for Otelia Cromwell, the college’s first African-American graduate.

The heart of the college is its faculty. We have nine new faculty joining us next year, all first choices in the searches that led to their appointments; four of them are American minorities. Current faculty members have continued to distinguish themselves by earning awards. Helen Horowitz’s book, Rereading Sex: Battles Over Sexual Knowledge and Suppression in 19th Century America, won the Organization of American Historians’ Merle Curti Prize and was a finalist for the Society of American Historians’ Parkman Prize and the Pulitzer Prize in History.

John Davis has been invited to give the Arlene and Leon Fuhrman Lecture at the University of Pennsylvania and has been appointed Senior Scholar in Residence at the Musée d’Art Americain in Giverny, France, and Sharon Seelig has won a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Indeed, our faculty and staff have received grants totaling over $5.5 million, the highest amount ever awarded in any one year to faculty and staff at Smith, and particularly notable in light of the difficulties of the economy.

Faculty work with students in much of the research that they do. This year we had an extraordinary display of that research in a daylong celebration, Collaborations, in which 170 students presented the work they did in conjunction with 100 faculty. The students ranged from first-years to seniors, and the fields of the projects from astrophysics to theater. The day was an exceptional testimony to the opportunities and achievements of a Smith education.

In the area of admissions, Smith has had great success this year. We had the second highest number of applications in the college’s history -- 3303 applicants for the first-year class. While it is still too early to provide you with final enrollment figures, we hope to greet a first-year class next fall of 640, in addition to 65 Ada Comstock scholars, and 75 transfer students. I want to thank our alumnae for all the hard work you do in helping us recruit students.

These students will have a hard act to follow. We have had a bumper year in national fellowships. Alyson Shaw, Ada Comstock ’04, has won a Beinecke scholarship. Rachel Balsham and Stephanie Jakus, both Class of ’05, have been named Boren Scholars. Three students have been named DAAD Fellows, a Smith record: Romney Haylett, ’02, Lisa Unangst ’03, and Karyn Wheeler ‘03. Sarah Winawer-Wetzel ’05 has been named a DAAD undergraduate scholar, a Smith first. Eight students have been named Fulbright Fellows, another Smith record. Merrill Baker will go to Madagascar; Catherine Campbell to Trinidad and Tobago; Chong-Hye Yi to Russia; Christina Gosack to Senegal; Hannah Wenzel to Germany, all Class of ‘03; Radha Blackman ’92 to Bulgaria; Samantha Martin to Greece; and Ann Scagel to Korea, both ‘98. Lauren Wolfe ’05, has been named a Goldman Sachs Global Leader, one of only 20 nationwide, and a Goldman Sachs Global Leadership Institute Delegate, one of only ten nationally and a Smith first. Heather Dyson and Eva LaDow, both ’04, have been named Goldwater Scholars, and Kimberly Sullivan ’03 has been named a Humanity in Action Fellow. We have two Mellon Fellows, a Smith record: Joanna Patterson ’03 and Carrie Geiser, AC ‘03. We have five Mellon Minority Undergraduate Fellows: Eundria Hill, Tiarra Kernan, Anna Lugo, Agunda Okeyo, and Irma Torres-Leon, all Class of ’05. We have one Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar, Mary Shows ’02, who will go to Chile, one Rotary World Peace Scholar, Elektra Gorski ’99, who will go to Japan, and one Udall Scholar, Elizabeth Callaghan, Ada Comstock ’04. These last two are Smith firsts. Damiana Astudillo-Eterno AC ’03 is a Woodrow Wilson Scholar. And in an achievement of a different sort, through the ROTC program, senior Debbie Cwalina will be commissioned as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army on May 24.

Our students have also excelled in sports. Softball, tennis, and soccer all made it to the semi-finals of their conference, and varsity crew finished second in its conference. Smith’s novice crew finished first in its conference final, blowing away Wellesley, Mount Holyoke, and the Coast Guard Academy by more than 15 seconds. On May 3, Smith’s varsity crew upset Wellesley to win the petit finals at New Englands by three hundredths of a second. Smith’s ski team finished 6th in the MacConnell Division, missing qualifying for nationals by just one place. Volleyball qualified for the post season ECAC tournament for the 7th time in a decade.

Smith athletes turned in some outstanding individual performances. Two athletes were named conference rookies of the year -- Catherine Peo in soccer and Kristin Maroney in softball. Kelly Duran, a junior skier, represented the United States in the Deaf Olympics in Sweden and won a silver medal in the Grand Slalom. Kate Sorenson, a first-year volleyball player, earned both all conference and regional honors, and Smith had four athletes earn all New England awards in track and field championships. Jessica Willis of the Equestrian team, competed in nationals and took 3rd place in the country in her jumping class. Claire Williams, a two-sport athlete in soccer and track and field was named Senior Athlete of the Year.

Club sports also continue to be active. Rugby fielded two squads; ice hockey won three games in an expanded schedule; and the fencing club traveled to the collegiate national championships, in which the saber team won first place and the team won overall fourth place.

What I am most proud of, however, are the academic records of our athletes. At a time when there is so much concern about low graduation rates among college athletes, Smith’s athletes have an average GPA of 3.25. 70 of our 300 athletes have a 3.5 GPA or above, and 42 made academic all conference teams. There was a three-way tie for Senior Scholar Athlete: Anne Miller, squash and lacrosse, with a 3.92 GPA; Helen Lee, an Ada Comstock scholar who was captain of cross country and track and field, with a 3.91 GPA, and Rose Kormarek, another Ada, squash with a 3.90 GPA.

Smith alumnae continue to distinguish themselves in many spheres. They have received government appointments. Marilyn Carlson Nelson ’61 has been appointed to President Bush’s National Women’s Business Council. Betsy Hoffman ’68, has been appointed to the National Science Board. Chief Justice of the First Circuit Carolyn Dineen King ’59 has been appointed to chair the executive committee of the Judicial Conference of the United States. Sheherbano Rehman ’85 has been elected to Pakistan’s National Assembly.

Alumnae have been appointed to lead companies and organizations. Mary Simmonds ’71 has been named President of the American Cancer Society. Kay Maxwell ’63 has been named President of the National League of Women Voters. Lynne Withey ’70 has been appointed Director of the University of California Press. Eve Guernsey ’77 is the new CEO of JP Morgan Fleming Asset Management. Polly Mott ’78 was named program director of Community REACH.

Smithies are also accomplished writers and artists. ’86 Adrian Nicole LeBlanc’s first book, Random Family: Love, Drugs, and Coming of Age in the Bronx, has been a New York Times best seller. ’74 Barbara Keiler’s new book, Love In Bloom (written under her pen name, Judith Arnold), was named one of the best mass-market novels of 2002 by Publisher’s Weekly. ’02 Sharmeen Obaid’s film, Terror’s Children, resulting from a project at the Kahn Institute, was broadcast in March on the Discovery Channel.

Finally, alumnae have won prestigious awards. Mary Cowhey AC ’97 has received the Milken Family Foundation’s National Educator Award. Toni Wolfman ’64 received the Women’s Bar Association of Massachusetts award for service to the profession. Valerie Schurman ’72 has received the corporate counsel of the year award from the southern California chapter of the American Corporate Counsel Association. Joanne Martin ’68 was one of four Centennial Medalists honored by the Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Gloria Heath ’43 has been named one of the 100 most influential women in aviation for her work in establishing a global, satellite-based rescue system for downed aircraft, and Ruth Sulzberger Holmberg ’43 has been chosen Tennessee Woman of the Year.

Each year we recognize people who have worked for Smith and are retiring. This year we lose the expertise and wisdom of five members of our Board of Trustees: Harry Kamen, Wendy Webb ’80, Isabel Wilson ’53, Ammara Yacub ’01, and our visionary Chair for the past five years, Shelly Lazarus ’68. We will sorely miss them. I want to thank them for their contributions to the direction and strength of the college.

Seven long-time members of the faculty will retire this year after decades of exemplary teaching and scholarship: Joan Afferica, Department of History; Robert Averitt, Department of Economics; Thomas Derr, Department of Religion; Peter Pufall and Donald Reutener, both Department of Psychology; Peter Rose, Department of Sociology; and William Wittig, Department of Music. Among them, these faculty have given the college 271.7 years of service.

Sadly, two current members of the Smith faculty died this year: Jerry Sachs, of the School for Social Work, and Janet Hill of the Department of Music. In addition, retired faculty Jeanne Powell of Biology, Dorothy Stahl of Music, and George Stone Durham of Geology also died this year.

Now I turn to the seniors. There are 722 of you. 59 of you are Adas. You come from 43 states, the District of Columbia, and 25 foreign countries. Together, you have completed 841 majors; 118 of you are graduating with double majors. The most popular majors are government, psychology, economics, English, and biology.

In the graduate program, fifty-four of you have completed graduate studies at Smith. Some of you have earned master’s degrees in Education, including Education of the Deaf, in the arts, and in Exercise and Sport Studies. Others have come from abroad to earn a diploma in American Studies.

All of you will go out into the world as the alumnae seated here have before you. Some of you will do things of which the world will take note; others will exert your strength in channels that have no great name on the earth. But as George Eliot says in the final lines of her novel, Middlemarch, “the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts.” It was in that spirit that Smith’s third President, William Allan Neilson, erected the Grecourt Gates as the symbolic entry to the college. They commemorate the work of the Smith College Relief Unit, who went to France in 1917 to rebuild villages in the district of the Somme that had been destroyed by the war, supported in their work by the contributions of alumnae. Shortly after they began to rebuild, the German army swept through again. The members of the unit evacuated the village, helping people pack up their belongings and standing at the crossroads to direct straggling allied soldiers, while shells exploded around them. After the allies retook the village, they returned to rebuild, not leaving until 1920. When President Neilson talked about the work of the unit, he emphasized that they did what they did “for its own sake, not for glory, not for reward, but because they knew it was well worth doing.” At the ceremony in 1924 at which the gates were dedicated, the leader of the unit, Harriet Boyd Hawes, 1892, talked about the opportunity for service that had been given them. “Here was a chance for our beloved college to do its bit for humanity and to establish a tradition of service which should take us far outside our own walls. Henceforth a Smith girl cannot be true to her Alma Mater and remain an isolationist.” Ada Comstock, the famous Dean of the College after whom the Ada Comstock Program was named, spoke even more directly about the significance of the gates for the generations of Smith students who would follow after. “They form a wide gateway through which the graduates of this college will go out year by year ready as were the members of this unit to dedicate all that they have to the common lot.” Dean Comstock reminds us that walking into Smith carries with it the responsibility of walking out, to use the education you have gained here to better the world in which you dwell. I wish you good speed, as you follow in the footsteps of the alumnae who have left before you. May your sprig of ivy grow deep roots and flourishing vines.